Is there a known issue that can cause the Mac Frame counter and the Key Index in Auxiliary security Header go to zero?

[jinpeng1989]

Is there a known issue that can cause the Mac Frame counter and the Key Index in Auxiliary security Header go to zero?

[jinpeng1989]

The Mac Frame counter and the Key Index will suddenly go to zero and then go back to normal. Is there any way to locate the issue?

[jwhui]

I'm not aware of any platform-independent issues that would cause the frame counter to be set occasionally to 0.

In general, the radio driver is responsible for setting the MAC Frame Counter. Here's one example:
https://github.com/openthread/ot-nrf528xx/blob/886e7f200512f2f9e1e13dfaa42e335ad8258d24/src/src/radio.c#L298

Reach out to your radio vendor to see if they can provide any support.

[rretanubun]

Hello,

I am also experiencing this issue, the effect for me is that some packets sent between an FTD -> MTD can be missed.

In my setup I am sending pings 1 per second from PC -> TBR -> TME -> MTD and experience 2 packets out of 55K are missing and one of the missing ping is time correlated to when the TME -> MTD sends a frame as described in the packet capture.

I also notice that the MAC Frame Counter (txAckProcessSecurity) is keyed to #if OPENTHREAD_CONFIG_THREAD_VERSION >= OT_THREAD_VERSION_1_2

I am wondering if the feature is expected to work if some devices (i.e. the MTD) is on an older Thread version OT_THREAD_VERSION_1_1 or is this purely a function of the frame sender (the rest of the devices in my setup is OT_THREAD_VERSION_1_3).

[jwhui]

As mentioned in #8842 (comment), the Key ID and Frame Counter values are set by the radio driver.

I am wondering if the feature is expected to work if some devices (i.e. the MTD) is on an older Thread version OT_THREAD_VERSION_1_1 or is this purely a function of the frame sender (the rest of the devices in my setup is OT_THREAD_VERSION_1_3).

Setting the Key ID and Frame Counter only occurs on the transmitter. Whether there are neighboring devices with older or different versions should not affect the transmit behavior.